The Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization Committee hosted a Chinatown Community presentation by Councillor Meggs and Councillor Chow on the future of the Georgia Viaducts this past January. The presentation was well attended and there was lively discussion on the impact of potential closure of the viaducts on Chinatown.

Ever since Chinatown homes and businesses were expropriated to make way for the construction of the viaducts, the viaducts have been a thorn in Chinatown’s side. There has long been a sense that the viaducts act as a symbolic, if not a very real, barrier to isolate Chinatown from the post-Expo economic development in Citygate, Yaletown, and most recently in Southeast False Creek. It also seems that the viaducts also serve to define the area in which the City’s social, economic and mental health problems are concentrated.